LinkedIn: Getting the word out

When you have a new product or service a common issue is getting the word out about your new great solution to solve a specific problem. Using the posting (blogging) capability of LinkedIn you can make a huge impact in getting your information "out there". You will be talking to your peers about something that you are passionate about.

The problem

Posting to LinkedIn whether it be a straight post, a video post, or a post with images the first time that you do it can present some troubles. This is all new to you. You've probably read others and thought they were creative geniuses for promoting online. It's now your turn to do the same. Let your creative genius shine through.

In this article we'll cover doing all three of the major postings on your personal page. In this post we will be making a few assumptions (we know assumptions are bad). First that you have created a LinkedIn profile. Don't have one? Not a problem we have a blog post about it here.

What is a blog?

As we started writing this one question that kept coming back to us is "what is a blog". We gave over 50 blog posts since 2013 with one added around every few weeks to www.jm2.biz covering all topics from LinkedIn, digital marketing, web design, search engines, and more. To us a blog is second nature with our cadence increasing more each year. To many though a blog or post is something entirely new. When explaining to people we've always found that explaining a blog post as a way of communicating a single thought to a group of people. These people are your current customers as we well as future customers. A blog post is something that matters today and will continue to live on months and years from now. When you write a blog post it is similar to that of an email. You include your thoughts for that point in time while also making it so that it can last the test of time. An email goes to a single person (or a small group). A blog post goes to the entire Internet with the hopes and aspirations of reaching hundreds, even thousands, of people.

Personal Posting

As we start out we know many have never made a post on LinkedIn before. With your first post you will have an extra step. This is because you've never created a post before. To do so at the top of your profile page you will see an image that has a "View More" option. You will want to click "View More" and look through the list for a section called Posts. You will want to click on Posts which will navigate to a new window where you can start creating your post. If you have already created a post before scroll down to your last post and look for a button that says "Write a new post".

Creating your post

The first item that you will notice is a section at the top that says "Add an image to bring your post to life". This image should be 700 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall. It is highly recommended that you not only use a picture to these dimensions but as LinkedIn says to bring your post to life.

The headline

The next part is where all of the magic starts to happen. You will need to click in the "Write Your Headline" and write your captivating headline that will draw people into wanting to read what you've written.

The body

After your headline comes your story. This is where you sell your new product, service, or brilliant idea to those that you've brought into your blog. Write the information just as you would an email. As you are writing and composing you will add headings (what is called H1 and H2), add quotes ("), highlight and enhance text (bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough), justify, bullet and number, and then comes the part of this post: links, pictures, and videos.

Links

There are two ways to add a link to your post. The way we recommend and that we use is we will write all of our text for a paragraph and then highlight what we want to link. The alternate is to stop typing and add your link. No matter which way you go you will have a link to a webpage and text that explains what the link is.

Note: We recommend to have a descriptive text like you would for your website explaining what the item is. Don't highlight "here". Rather highlight the link text as "Click here to read about our new product or service.". This not only makes more sense to the user but to the search engines as well. When possible make the link match that of the heading to the page you are linking to.

When you are ready to add your link you will click on the "Add Link" toolbar icon. This will bring up one of two possible boxes. If you've highlighted the text, the system is smart enough that it knows it doesn't have to ask for the text to display. When you just click the link and you don't have text selected you will need to fill in the text as well as the link you want to link to. Once you have completed entering the text/link for the page you're connecting to you will then click on the Apply button. You will notice your text on the screen and that it has an underline under it.

Pictures

Pictures work very similar to that of adding a link to your website. An image has certain restrictions that you will need to adhere to. For most these restrictions will never cause a problem. At the time of the writing of this blog post an image is limited to being 10meg in size and must be a GIF, JPG (JPEG for Macintosh users), or a PNG file. This format is the primary format used by all cameras and any photo editing software can save in all of these formats as well.

Note: The larger the image the longer it can take for your readers to read an image. It is recommended to keep the images as small as possible while also keeping the images as clear as possible to get your point across in the article. As an example, every image in this blog post we kept to under 100k in size each.

Videos

Videos are becoming all the rage on social media networks. The reason being is that videos are quicker for most to watch. For people with limited time a video can convey your entire thought process at a more rapid pace without losing a reader's attention.

To add a video, you will click the "Add Video" button from the toolbar. A window will open to embed a video. You will notice that you have several options available to you. You can embed YouTube, SlideShare, Vimeo, Ted, Livestream, or Getty images by including their < embed > code. The embed code is routinely an iframe option.

As an example, when you watch a video on YouTube when you view your video you will notice a Share button under the video title and Subscribe button. If you click this there is a section called Embed. By clicking on embed you will see a text box that starts with < iframe. You would copy everything from this line into your computers clipboard and then paste it into the LinkedIn video spot.

Tags

Tags are a way to categorize your post information. You can include up to three categories within your post. Start typing in the category box and you will start see a dropdown come with options to choose from. This allows people to know what the post is about.

Note: We strongly recommend every post use as many tags as possible (up to the three maximum).

Publishing

Now that you have your new post created with images, links, and video comes to the most exciting part of your post.

At the top of the page you will notice a button that says Publish. Click the button and you will be prompted with a screen confirming that you wish to post this article. You can choose "Not yet" which stops it from being seen by others or click on "Publish post" which makes it available to everyone.

The reason you would choose not yet as an option would be if this is a draft and you need to go back later to make any final adjustments.

Conclusion

A blog is a great way to get the word out about your product, services, and thoughts. Whether you post frequently or not the key is to do so at a pace that works for you. If you want to be in front of others often then post often. If you want to just get the word out every so often then post less frequently.

We know at times you are a busy person but still want and need to get your good word out. JM2 Webdesigners has dedicated content writers who can help you take article from good to great and even create it from scratch. On top of our content writers we have graphic designers that can help enhance your post with images and video. If you need help now or wish to schedule something for the future let us know through our contact form here.

John Marx

John has been an entrepreneur and pusher of all things “normal”. He was brought up where a handshake is as good as any word and even more important than any legal speak. John believes in giving back and giving people more than they expect. This is the foundation and basis of JM2 Webdesigners & Marketing. The prices will shock you, the amount you get will shock you even more, and the skills his entire team brings will completely amaze. He has built a team of experts that are talented, young, and efficient. Each one has the characteristics of the company in wanting to see a small business grow and each one goes above, and beyond which makes John beyond proud of them.

So why is John considered the “Code Ninja”. It’s isn’t because people fear ninja’s (they should). They will fight until their last breath defending, achieving the mission, and helping (in this case small businesses). John believes in very surgical strikes to help a business grow using agile methods that change rapidly, in ways people don’t expect, and with a relentless passion to achieve greatness.

Valparaiso Web Design Mission Statement

JM2 Webdesigners & Marketing provides each client a custom developed solution to meet their business needs. Dynamic and creative solutions for marketing, web design, software development, social media, photography, video, and visual branding. Achieving excellence in an honest and ethical manner.